April
Spring is here! It's the peak of bloom month! April showers bring us
10% of our rainfall. The soil is warming up, but a late frost is still
possible. It's time to plant for summer. Divide and plant spring
blooming perennials.
Plant for Summer
Plant summer annuals, bulbs and vegetables. Plant seeds of cucumbers,
melons and zucchini. Set out transplants of tomatoes and peppers. Put
in several plantings of summer bulbs like gladiolus and lilies. Be
sure to let the foliage of spring bulbs die naturally.
Plant frost tender subtropicals, including citrus, hibiscus, lantana. Wait to prune frost damaged plants. Some branches that look dead now may leaf out in another month or two.
Prune spring bloomers when flowering stops. Candidates are spirea, philadelphus, viburnum, redbud, ribes, lilac, ceanothus, quince, genista, acacia, forsythia.
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Planting Trees and Shrubs The first step is to be sure that the plant is not root bound. Take the plant out of the container. Do this at the nursery if you can, especially if you think that the plant is overgrown for the size of its container. It there is a dense mass of encircling roots, return the plant to the nursery. These roots will not spread out into the soil and can eventually kill the plant. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the plant's container but no deeper. Score the edges of the hole; or dig a square hole. This encourages the roots to grow out of the hole and into the native soil. Loosen the backfill soil if it's too compacted. Put the plant in the hole, and backfill, firming the soil lightly. Be sure the crown of the plant is at or slightly above the soil level. Azaleas can be planted in 100% peatmoss. At the very least, add 50% organic matter to your soil. Add peatmoss to the soil when planting camellias and gardenias too. Most other shrubs do just as well without amending the native soil. After all, the roots will grow well beyond the hole you provided. The plant must adapt to your soil. Want to save money? Buy shrubs in one gallon containers. They will catch up with those in larger containers in about two years.
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If you have bare or thin patches in your lawn, reseed now. Use a seed
similar to the grasses in your lawn. Cover the seeds with a quarter
inch layer of mulch, and keep it moist by watering in twice a day. It
will germinate in a couple of weeks.
Lawns
If your lawn is really poor, you may want to overseed the entire lawn. The procedure is the same. Mow it short; apply the seeds; cover with a thin layer of mulch; and water twice a day for a couple of weeks.
You will not be able to reseed if you used a weed preventer in February. Weed preventers act by killing the roots of seeds as they germinate. If you need to repair a poor lawn in the spring by reseeding or overseeding, do not use a weed preventer in late winter.
Plant lawns from seed or sod. Tall fescue blends get by on less water than the traditional bluegrass, ryegrass, fine fescue blends. They are less disease prone, can be mowed lower, require less fertilizer to look their best, and will tolerate more shade. If you plant trees in the lawn, keep the grass at least 30 inches from the trunk. Grass roots produce chemicals that retard the growth of young trees.
Lawns really begin to grow this month. You may notice dry spots. Your sprinklers may need to be cleaned and adjusted. You don't notice when a sprinkler is clogged in the winter. But lawns need the water they get now just to stay green.
Tall fescue is the best turf grass for most of California, including the Central Coast. It is coarser than bluegrass and bluegrass-ryegrass blends, but it has many advantages over them. The roots are deeper, so it needs less water. It gets by on less fertilizer too. It tolerates shade much better than bluegrass. It does not become thin and patchy in shady areas in the winter. Tall fescue grows quite thickly and keeps most weeds out without chemicals.
The only disadvantage to tall fescue is that it is a clump grass. Dead spots do not fill in as they do with bluegrass, ryegrass and Bermuda grass. You will need to reseed dead spots if they occur.
Mowing correctly is the first step to a healthy lawn. The rules are simple. 1) Keep the blade sharp; 2) Mow every week; and 3) Mow at 2" to 3" in the summer.
If you mow every week and do not over-fertilize, you will remove no more than 1/3 of the leaf blade each time. Mowing fairly high, but not over 3 inches, keeps the roots cooler, improves water retention, and promotes dense turf. Remember, dense turf prevents weeds from germinating.
If possible, mow when the lawn is not damp, especially if you use a mulching mower. Mulching mowers finely chop the grass blades and return them to the soil. The nitrogen in the grass means you can fertilize less.
Mulch shrub beds to keep roots cool and to supress weed growth. Use
at least 2 inches of an organic compost. Renew this mulch each spring
bu digging the old mulch into the soil and adding new mulch on the
top. Don't let mulch pile up against the crown of the plant, which could
cause crown rot.
Mulch
Do you want a really low maintenance bed? Use water permeable landscape cloth or black plastic covered with rocks. River rock seems natural for most areas of California, and it has many advantages. You can clean it with rake or blower if it's large enough. A rock covering keeps cats away too. Volcanic rock is very light. It's too easy to rake or blow onto the lawn, and unless you live by Mt Shasta, it looks out of place. Avoid crushed rock in the landscape; it looks out of place anywhere.
What's in bloom during this peak of bloom month? Most of the plants
that begin blooming in March are still blooming in April.
What's new for April? Roses! Roses! Roses!
The first and best bloom of roses is in April. Rose bushes have not
yet been attacked by insects and fungus diseases. It's time to begin a
program of fertilizing and spraying to keep the roses healthy all
spring, summer and fall.
In Bloom In April
Lilac is in full bloom this month. Don't believe that we can't grow lilacs in southern California. With proper care, they can be spectacular.
Pink Jasmine or Jasminum polyanthum is in full bloom right now.
The flowers are profuse and extremely fragrant. This jasmine is a fast
growing vine that will grow to 20 feet or more if it is not
controlled. Prune it after the first bloom fades. Prune it hard, and
let it grow back into a loose, natural shape. It does well growing up
a fence and cascading over the other side.
Iris are in bloom as are other members of the iris family -- dietes
(fortnight lily), watsonia, sysarinchium (blue-eyed grass and
yellow-eyed grass) and gladiolus. The photo shows Dutch Iris. These
are grown from bulbs planted in the fall. They come in many colors
(and bicolors), including blue, purple, brown, orange, yellow
and white. The Dutch hybridized this iris from species found in the
western Mediterranean countries of Europe and northern Africa.
Chinese Wisteria is a deciduous, woody vine. The flowers appear in April
and May and are followed by compound, light green leaves. The leaves
provide a bright yellow color in the fall as well.
Echium fastuosum or Pride of Madeira is spectacular, with flowers
on one foot or longer spikes in colors ranging from deep purple to true
blue. Grows as a mound of six feet or more. The leaves are a gray green
color and about six inches long. Needs summer water except at the coast.
This plant grows rapidly but is short-lived. It can easily be propagated
from cuttings taken in the spring.
The strawberry harvest begins this month and continues through
October.
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© 1998 by Jim Clatfelter
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